Director for the show is Lou Bellamy, founder and artistic director of Penumbra Theatre Co. in Minnesota, who makes his first visit to Northeast Ohio.

"(Cleveland Play House Artistic Director) Michael Bloom and I had been talking about me working there for years, and we had a few projects on the table," said Bellamy, calling from Kansas City. "Since it's the 50th anniversary of ('A Raisin in the Sun') opening on Broadway, we're going to do it at Penumbra Theater in St. Paul. So is Arizona Theater.

"So the production starts in Cleveland, goes to Arizona, plays Phoenix and Tucson and then plays Minneapolis. So it was efficient and a good team to put together. I'm thrilled to be down there in Cleveland. My grandparents are from Columbus. After the Civil War, they settled there. So I can't wait to get down to that area and meet some people."

A faculty member for nearly 30 years at the University of Minnesota, Bellamy's resume includes the W. Harry Davis Foundation Award for Leadership in Afro-centric Education, the Links Award in Recognition of Excellence in Black Theatre and a doctorate from Hamline University.

He said what inspires him about "A Raisin in the Sun," which did open half a century ago with its Broadway cast including Ruby Dee, Louis Gossett and Sidney Poitier, is the timeless quality of the play.

"It's an absolutely beautiful play," Bellamy said. "Many of the issues are long before their time. You have a woman considering an abortion in the play. You've got an African student, who is going with a young girl, who understands revolution in almost an epic sense. He understands it on the African continent better than I've seen it expressed in almost any play.

"There are just so many wonderful moments that have been borrowed by many playwrights since that time, but this is the sort of wellspring for much of that kind of work."

Bellamy added that when you throw in today's social economic issues, as well as the first Presidential election ever to involve an African-American nominee from a major political party, it makes for a perfect opportunity to once again experience "A Raisin in the Sun."

"The issues are certainly relevant," Bellamy said. "We're still dealing with using the best of everyone in our society and finding ways to live together in harmony. And this is a play that is so significant because it's the first time in American theater that a large population got to see inside of a black family. Usually that large population only saw blacks as they came to work, as they were maybe demonstrating for civil rights or those sort of things.

"You get a chance to see what it's like inside of that family, and I think that this take and this company will offer something they haven't seen before. There's a certain chemistry between the characters that is absolutely amazing. It'll be new, fresh and wonderful."